DEVPSYCH (LESSON 1)

Human Development

Scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout the human life span

Human Development

Aimed at dealing with internal and external conditions of existence

Life-span Development

Concept of human development as a lifelong process, which can be studied physically

Physical Development

Cognitive Development

Psychosocial Development

The Study of Human Development Basic Concepts

Physical Development

growth of the body and brain, sensory capacities, motor skills and health are parts of _______ ________

Cognitive Development

Pattern of change in mental abilities, such as learning, attention, memory, language, thinking

Psychosocial Development

Pattern of change in emotions, personality and social relationships.

Social Construction

A concept or practice that may appear natural and obvious to those who accept it, but that in reality is an invention of a particular culture or society.

Individual Differences

Hereditary

Environment

Maturation

Influences on Development

Individual Differences

Differences in characteristics, influences or developmental outcomes

Hereditary

Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents

Environment

Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential, influences on development

Maturation

Unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes

Nuclear Family

Extended Family

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Risk Factors

Culture

Ethic Group

Context of Development

Nuclear Family

Two-generational kinship, economic, and household unit consisting of one or two parents and their biological children, adopted children or stepchildren.

Extended Family

Multigenerational kinship network of parents, children and other relatives, sometimes living together in an extended-family household.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Combination of economic and social factors describing an individual or family, including income, education, and occupation.

Risk Factors

Conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome.

Culture

A society’s or group total way of life, including customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language and physical products — all learned behavior, passed on from parents to children

Ethic Group

A group united by ancestry, race, religion, language, and/or national origins, which contribute to a sense of shared identity.

Ethnic Gloss

Normative

Cohort

Historical Generation

Nonnormative

Historical Context

Ethnic Gloss

Overgeneralization about an ethnic or cultural group that obscures differences within the group

Normative

Characteristics of an event that occurs in a similar way for most people in a group

Cohort

A group of people born at about the same time

Historical Generation

A group of people strongly influenced by a major historical event during their formative period.

Nonnormative

Characteristics of an unusual event that happens to a particular person or a typical event that happens at unusual time of life

Imprinting

Critical Period

Plasticity

Sensitive Periods

Timing of Influences: Critical or Sensitive Periods

Imprinting

Instinctive form of learning in which, during a critical period in early development, a young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees, usually the mother.

Critical Period

Specific time when a given or its absence has a specific impact on development.

Plasticity

Range of modifiability of performance

Sensitive Periods

Times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experiences

Development is lifelong

Development is multidimensional

Development is multidirectional

Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span

Development involves changing resource allocations

Development shows plasticity

Development is influenced by the historical and cultural context

Paul B. Baltes’s Lifespan Developmental Approach

John Locke

He believed that a young child is a tabula rasa — blank slate on which society writes.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

He believed that children are born noble savages who developed according to their own positive natural tendencies if not corrupted by society.

Mechanistic Model

Model that views human development as a series of predictable responses to stimuli

Organismic Model

Model that views human development as internally initiated by an active organism and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages.

Psychosexual Development

In Freudian Theory, an unvarying sequence of stages of childhood personality development in which gratification shifts from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals.

Psychosocial Development

In Erikson’s eight-stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self

Sociocultural Theory

Vygotsky’s theory of how contextual factors affect children’s development

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky’s term for the difference between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help.

Qualitative Research

Quantitative Research

Research Methods

Quantitative Research

Research that deals with objectively measurable data

Qualitative Research

Research that focuses on nonnumerical data, such as subjective experiences, feelings, or beliefs.